Aleksandr Otroshchenkov: In prison, people read “Narodnaya Volya” and “Nasha Niva” from cover to cover

"In prison people read 'Narodnaya Volya' and 'Nasha Niva' from cover to cover. The threat of closure of these newspapers evokes indignation," the prisoner of conscience, Aleksandr Otroshchenkov, has told his wife Darya.

As Darya has described to charter97.org, people were let into the prison at about 10 am, were taken around the site, were shown the conditions of detention and allowed to meet with political prisoners. Aleksandr had no complaints about the conditions of detention.

“We were led into the dining room and were given to try what the prisoners are fed. Thet said that this was the usual type of courses – there was pea soup, potatoes with meat and kissel (a type of jelly). They have a group of 120 people living in 4 rooms – 30 in each. The beds are in two tiers; Sasha sleeps near a window and the church is visible from the window,” Darya shares her impressions. “Of course, this is not a children’s summer camp, it’s a prison, but Sasha does not complain; he is cheerful and joking.”

“He says that the inmates read ‘Narodnya Volya’ and ‘Nasha Niva’ from cover to cover. Feelings are sharpened there; they follow all the news, reading between the lines, so the independent newspapers are highly regarded,” says Darya. “And Sasha receives a lot of letters. Acquaintances write to him, but 80% of the letters are from strangers. This is a huge support and Sasha has asked me to thank everyone very much.”

We remind you that Aleksandr Otroshchenkov, the press secretary of the presidential candidate Andrei Sannikov, was sent to a maximum security prison for 4 years on the fabricated charge of taking part in the so-called “riots”. This is how the dictatorship describes the peaceful protest by many thousands of Belarusians against the falsified results of the presidential elections on 19 December.